Boys' Soccer: Kings still have Falcons' number

The Thunder Mountain and Ketchikan boys’ soccer teams have started what looks to be a bit of a rivalry, but the Kings showed they’re still second in the Southeast Conference pecking order.

Ketchikan broke open a tie game around the 25th minute and continued to be aggressive throughout as the Kings beat the Falcons 4-0 on Friday night at Thunder Mountain High School. TMHS coach Ry Walters said, once again, his team played the opposition tough, but it’s difficult to make up ground after falling behind 2-0.

“After that we really put it back at them with a lot going forward, but that was kind of our downfall,” he said. “We got caught too high up, and they got another goal. That second goal took the wind out of us a bit.”

The Falcons were aggressive offensively, but oftentimes that comes with a price. The Kings were able to sustain the pressure and answered with three goals in the second half to take the win and go 4-0 against Thunder Mountain this season.

Faced with the pressure of having to come back from a deficit, Walters said the Falcons sold out a bit on the offensive end, giving them less help on the back end of the defense. But where focus and intensity was something he was not happy with on Thursday night, Walters said his team was ready to play on Saturday.

“The intensity was excellent. Everybody played really hard,” he said. “I was really proud of the guys’ energy level.”

Thunder Mountain’s offense has had some difficulty possessing the ball on the attack. Rather than building up from the back, the Falcons continued to rely on long passes in hope their forwards would be able to catch up to it and put it away. Freshman Ben Jahn was able to apply some pressure, tallying two shots on goal, but it wasn’t enough.

The Falcons will host defending state champion Juneau-Douglas at 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday at TMHS.